


crown of gold, throne of ashes - abandoned

by meteor_shower (byeolbit)



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Fix It Fic, Multi, canon divergence after season 7, characters and pairings will be added as we go along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 15:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18813892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byeolbit/pseuds/meteor_shower
Summary: Danaerys did not know what she expected as she marched up North to fight the Night King. But neither did anyone else.(My season 8 fix it fic)





	crown of gold, throne of ashes - abandoned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [biasedwriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biasedwriting/gifts).



> Please mind the trigger warnings in the tags. Chapter wise warnings will be added in the notes at the starting of the chapter.

Prologue

 

The wind carries a chill in the air that makes Danaerys uncomfortable. The north is covered in a thin blanket of snow and shines a dull white till the eye can see. The land is as rough as its people she notes, looking in particular at the King of the North.

Warden of the North, she corrects herself.

She has spent so long getting him to bend the knee that his declaration of loyalty is something she still struggles with.

And of all places to assert it….

She sighs, pulling her coat closet to herself. Jon is engaged in conversation with Ser Davos and Ser Jorah. There are many things she wishes to discuss with him but now is neither the place nor the time.

"Your Grace" Tyrion asks permission to approach her. Danaerys nods. Her jaw sets as she watches her Hand pull his horse up closer to hers. To say their relationship hasn't fared well is an understatement. But Tyrion is the reason she has truce with Cersei and just for that he doesn't quite face her ire.

"What do you think of the North?" Tyrion asks her.

"It's colder than I thought it would be" Danaerys replies. She has no particular opinions on it. It isn't home for her like it is for Jon. It is simply a kingdom she will eventually rule. An ally because Jon is an ally but she doesn't know its people yet.

Ages ago, the battle for the North ended with the Starks bending the knee to the Targaryens. She doesn't wish to find out what would have happened if Torrhen Stark had decided to fight instead of kneel. Peace is the legacy she wishes to keep if the present must parallel history.

"It can be rather unwelcoming to those it doesn't consider its own" Tyrion agrees. He doesn't miss Danaerys's sharp look.

"Years ago, I followed Robert Baratheon when he came up North to ask Ned Stark to be Hand of The King" Tyrion starts. "It was still summer then. The lands were beautiful and green."

"It's still beautiful" Danaerys says reluctantly. It's winter and the trees have shed their leaves or are covered under snow. It'll be years yet before spring comes.

But the land is not devoid of beauty. She remembers the sunrise from this morning. She had woken up early, slightly nauseated but that had subsided as quickly as it had come. The snow had glistened golden in the sunlight as the sky was painted in hues of red and orange.

"But I doubt you sought my company to discuss landscapes."

"You're quite right, Your Grace" Tyrion admits. "There is something you need to know. As your Hand, I felt it prudent to inform you of the same."

"What is it?" Danaerys asks warily. The last she needs is more obstacles on the way to the throne.

"As you are aware, Your Grace, I was once married to Lady Sansa Stark of Winterfell" Tyrion starts. He waits for Danaerys's nod to continue. "Lady Sansa and I parted under very unusual circumstances."

"She escaped while you were imprisoned and accused for murdering your nephew, the king" Danaerys recounts wryly. Tyrion sighs heavily before nodding.

"I haven't met Lady Sansa in a very long time" Tyrion tells her.

"And you have apprehensions about how she will receive you" Danaerys deduces.

"Apprehensions for us all. Varys has reliable intelligence to prove that Sansa is effectively the queen in the north. Her influence could only have grown during the time Jon was at Dragonstone" Tyrion tells her.

"You think she will rebel against her brother's word?" Danaerys asks point blank. Above their heads, Drogon and Rhaegal roar as they fly. Tyrion frowns but doesn't let it affect him.

"No, Sansa is far too clever to start a war when she knows that she will need men to fight against the White Walkers" Tyrion infers. Danaerys notes the lack of firm denial of dissent. So the Lady of Winterfell will not be an ally.

It's a major setback and Danaerys hasn't even stepped into Winterfell yet.

"See Davos tells me that the first thing Sansa did on escaping the Boltons was to find her brother" Tyrion says. "She found her brother and took back her family home. The Knights of the Vale rode North for her and that's how they won the Battle of the Bastards."

"Then why did she let the men proclaim Jon as King? Especially when she had claim as the eldest Stark child in Winterfell?" Danaerys asks curiously.

"She cared for her brother and trusts him. Trusts her family. You saw how Jon's face lit up when he read news that Arya and Bran were back home. The Stark children are a wolf pack. Fiercely protective of each other after everything they have been through" Tyrion tells her.

"Not an uncommon virtue" Danaerys says. She married Khal Drogo for Viserys once upon a time. She didn't expect to fall in love with him but she did and she did everything to protect him and their unborn son. She looks up to the sky and thinks of Viserion who should be flying with them.

The Lady of Winterfell is suddenly not so different from herself. Only on the opposing side of the game of power.

"She isn't the naive teenager who came to King's Landing once upon a time. There is no way she could be" Tyrion muses.

"And you aren't the imp who ran from King's Landing after murdering his father. Neither of us are the people we were years ago. And neither of us will be the same if we survive the Great War" Danaerys says.

The future is inevitable and their prospects are from. The further north they match, the more she feels nervous. She knows people. She understands them and how to fight them. The white walkers are death personified, quite literally. How does one fight an enemy that cannot be killed? An army that doesn't tire, doesn't stop?

"Neither of us will be" Tyrion agrees. She almost expects him to drink deeply from a goblet of wine after that statement.

She could use some fine wine herself.


End file.
